Recipes

Quick and Easy Skillet Buffalo Chicken

/ TaMara

I really like to whip up quick flavorful dinners.  Buffalo chicken is a favorite and I’m always experimenting with making it better.  This time I tossed the chicken in seasoned potato starch and thought it was the ingredient that had been missing. It makes the chicken pieces crisp up nicely and added a depth of flavor beyond the sauce.

It is great served over rice, salad, mashed or baked potatoes, drizzled with bleu cheese dressing and a side of celery.  All the flavor of wings without the prep time or mess.

Skillet Buffalo Chicken Bites Continue reading →

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Creole Veggies with Black Beans And Rice

/ TaMara

creole-veggiesWe’re trying to do a vegetarian night a few times a week. This was one of my favorite creations.

Creole Vegetables with Black Beans and Rice

  • 1 cup Jasmine Rice
  • 1 -15 oz can no salt black beans (drained and rinsed)
  • lime juice
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 6 green onions, chopped (including greens)
  • 1/2 each: green, red and orange pepper, diced
  • 1 stalk celery, diced
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 1-14 oz can no salt diced tomatoes
  • salt to taste

Continue reading →

Variations On Shortbread: Coconut and Tahini

/ TaMara / 1 Comment

I was telling a friend I was going to make Tahini shortbread cookies to use up the tahini I had leftover from the Tahini Walnut Rolls (recipe here). She asked if it was dairy free, because she’d like to make shortbread, but was avoiding dairy.

The original recipe wasn’t, but I thought I’d give it a try with just tahini. And then because I Iove coconut, I thought I’d do the same thing with coconut oil. So both of these are dairy free.  Continue reading →

Irresistible Training Treats: Peanut Butter and Pumpkin

/ TaMara

Bixby really loves these

Scout’s training has really taken hold. While we’ve trained since day one, puppy brain limited her ability to focus completely. As she’s matured, training has grown with her. She had a very good week and I thought it would be good to have some really tasty training treats to reward her.

Bixby would do almost anything for these treats, so time to give it a try with Scout. I haven’t made them forever and had forgotten how easy they are. And how many they make. These should last us for quite a while. Continue reading →

A Little Baking: Tahini Rolls

/ TaMara

I’ll post the full recipe once I’ve completed this. I like to make sure it works first, LOL.

A friend is coming over for coffee this morning and I wanted to prepare a little treat. Luckily my friends are used to me experimenting on them.  What I realized this morning, I really miss playing with recipes.

But at the moment, there is not a lot of time for that. I did have fun this morning doing this one and playing in the kitchen really is stress relief for me.

Stay tuned for the finished product. Until then…

 

Christmas Eve Party: Sesame Brittle

/ TaMara

I was doing some recipe searching for a project I’ll post about later and sesame seeds were heavily featured. That put me in mind of Sesame Brittle. I thought it might be nice to have it to crumble over ice cream on the Sundae Bar on Christmas Eve.

Such a simple recipe. No candy thermometer needed. I always use oiled wax paper, but I’m wondering if oiled parchment would work better. The heat of candy on the wax paper melts it in places. Difficult to peel off.

Sesame Brittle

  • ½ cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
  • salt

saucepan, wax paper (or parchment) and baking sheet Continue reading →

Christmas Eve Menu

/ TaMara

Every year, around Thanksgiving, I ask my Christmas Eve guests what they want at our annual soiree.

This year we settled on fairly simple, yet tasty menu:

Oven Fried Buttermilk Chicken 

This will be a tweaked recipe – kind of combining two of my favorite recipes. I’ve done a couple of practice batches – can’t have too much oven fried chicken! – and once I have it perfected, I’ll post.

Loaded Mashed Potatoes

I’m doing my no boil mashed potatoes (recipe here) and serving it fully loaded with sour cream, bacon and cheddar cheese. Also gravy.

Cajun Gravy

This will be a spicy mix of sausage, bacon, minced chicken hearty gravy.

Bacon, Tomato, Green Beans

Pretty simple – tossing green beans with bacon (and bacon grease) and sliced grape tomatoes in a skillet until tender.

And finally, dessert will be the ever popular Ice Cream Sundae Bar

Premium vanilla bean ice cream served with choice of toppings – caramel, chocolate, peanuts, walnuts and sliced bananas

Photos and recipes to follow.